Tag: health

The first shipments of a much-anticipated vaccine for COVID-19 could arrive in Riverside County on Friday (Dec. 18), and local health officials are working with area hospitals to vaccinate thousands of first-line health care workers.

The Trump administration dove back into Capitol Hill's confusing COVID-19 negotiations on Tuesday, offering a $916 billion package to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans — but eliminate a $300 per week employment benefit favored by a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.

The biggest threat to the Affordable Care Act may not be the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court but rather the law’s biggest omission: no way to seriously control the cost of medical care. The absence of such a mechanism to curb the relentless rise in medical costs has always been the law’s Achilles’ heel, the biggest threat to its long-term stability. Ever-rising health care costs eat away at the law and jeopardize its effectiveness as a backstop for the uninsured and uninsurable.

On December 3, 2020, Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36) introduced legislation to ensure timely Medicare coverage of groundbreaking early cancer detection tests for our nation’s seniors. The bipartisan legislation recognizes emerging advances in our nation’s fight against cancer by creating a Medicare coverage pathway for new innovative tests that detect multiple types of cancer before symptoms develop. Dr. Ruiz introduced the Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act alongside Reps. Terri Sewell (AL-07), Jodey Arrington (TX-19), and Richard Hudson (NC-08).

Thirteen counties in Northern California will be placed under the state's most restrictive coronavirus rules this week because capacity in intensive care units has fallen below 15%, and officials warned Wednesday that hospitals across the state are filling up with COVID-19 patients.